This is a discussion on How would you play against me? within the online poker forums, in the Learning Poker section; After trying my hand at SNG's and MTT's for a few months I decided to take cash games seriously. When I first started to play

After trying my hand at SNG's and MTT's for a few months I decided to take cash games seriously. When I first started to play them I was most certainly a losing player, and the main reason I felt for this was that I was unwilling to lay down 'big hands', often costing me all of my winnings that I had grinded out in the previous 100 hands and then some. I decided to try fixing this by playing multiple tables at once, so I get less bored and become willing to let the big hands go more regularly.

Now, after 3.5k hands, I realise that this is not a large enough sample size to determine how big a winning player I am at cash, (If I am one at all that is!), but I am thinking it is more hands then someone will typically have on a random player. So I was wondering if from the following stats, if anyone was willing to give there thoughts on what they would think if they sat down on a table with me. How would you play me? What weaknesses would you exploit? Any advice would be appreciated.

Went to showdown = 29%
Won at showdown = 50%
Won without showdown = 35%

#2

12th March 2011, 11:23 PM

megl [54]

Poker at: PokerStars

Game: NLHE

Nice post, good idea to post your own stats to get some feedback, I hope you get some useful replies! Let me try to start off:
All the following is based on the assumption that you play full ring like I do, if you play 6-max it's probably invalid. Plus, it's all pretty general, being based on the pretty general info you have given in your post, so filter it as you like :-)
It's hard to say anything solid without knowing your turn and river stats, but I'll try anyway, just know that this is based on my guess on how you play the later streets :-)
Done with all the disclaimers, here we go:

Your preflop range is pretty wide, and you bet more flops than you hit. That would make me try these moves:
- 3bet you preflop in the right spots, regardless of my holdings - many times you would have to put me on a better hand than yours (given your wide opening range and the session stats you would have on me), and I would be able to steal your raise.
- float your cbet (if I connect with the flop, or just if I think you did not) and take control of the hand on the turn if you check, or even float you to the river and take the pot if I sense you did not coinnect well with the board
- both of the above moves I would probably only make when I have position on you.
- If I call your preflop raise and flop a monster, slowplay it and let you lead as many streets as I think I can, building a big pot that you can't get away from when I valuebet/raise the river
- You steal a lot. I would 3bet you sometimes in the blinds. But maybe you are already aware that some players allow you to steal a lot and others do not.
- My favourite move would be to blind battle you a couple of times with dubious holdings and then when I pick up a monster in the blinds, blind battling for your stack :-D

Useful?
If not please say so, so I can improve my posts, don't worry I have thick skin :-D

#3

14th March 2011, 6:27 AM

takethepain [182]

Online Poker at: Full Tilt

Game: No Limit Hol

re: Poker & How would you play against me?

Thanks for your reply Yes this was for full ring cash games. Unfortunately my tracking software doesn't break things down on the turn and the river so I can't help there.

Yes, your post was very useful. In-fact its how I tend to play against people with similar stats to my own so it shows I'm on the right track anyway

Yeah I am probably loser than the typical person on this forum, but I don't consider myself super loose. From UTG I play about 12% of hands, compared to about 35% from the button. The key thing I'm working on is not reducing the hands I play, but improving how I play them post flop. Trying to keep the pot small with weaker type hands, not being afraid to fold top pair with a good kicker, that kind of thing and have seen my results improve dramatically because of it.

3betting me certainly does get me to fold quite often, then again, I rarely do see it at this level so I do assume they have something decent more often than not.

And likewise, if the blinds re-raise me I can fold, although its not beyond me to then four-bet with air and have them fold...depending on how I view them as a player.

But yes, in general thankyou for your post and trust me, it was fine, no need to improve